Celebrating the Life of Brian Trethowan

A Service Of Celebration And Thanksgiving For The Life Of Brian Trethowan

“Brian lived a life that was blessed with a loving family, hard work, opportunities to grow and learn and, as with every person here, he had his challenges. There are many different stories here today, each one of you having a different story to tell and yet there are some common threads that run clear.

Brian was a good man, he worked hard, he laughed long and loud; he knew he wasn’t perfect but tried his best. He was the life of a party and also had cranky ‘thundercloud’ moments, which went as quick as they came.”

Brian’s brother, Terry and Terry’s wife, Shirley shared the first part of the eulogy regaling us with delightful tales of Brian’s family growing up about 18 mile out of Dubbo on a mixed farm. Stories of dance halls, old tennis courts and doing it tough on the farm; of the family emerging out of the war years into the good wool prices of the 50’s and Brian’s eventual move to Coffs Harbour. It was a rich story of community and a man who wasn’t afraid of hard work, stepping outside the box and giving anything a go. It was a story of love and friendship.

“He was known as Brian, dad, grandad, … and darls. If you’ve not heard the story about ‘darls’… you will shortly.”

His daughter, Jay, wrote and read the eulogy for the latter part of Darl’s life. She wrote, ‘I know some of you are wondering why we call Brian “Darls”.  Ours was a social home with friends there much of the time. As Brian could not remember all of our friends’ names, or even tell them apart at times, he called all the girls “Darls”. Somehow, that became his nick name.  To this day, he is still “Darls” to us and also, many of our friends from those early days.’

To view the recorded livestream of the ceremony click here.